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Much to his relief, Quentin had found a small home after a few more miles of walking that would be adaquate shelter for the night. It was finally dark, extremely dark, and freezing.

He sat on the floor, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, head leaning back against the wall. Sleep wasn't very close yet, so Quentin occupied his mind with studying the room. It was a living room, a tattered, mothbitten couch rested against the wall to his right, a chair in the same state of decay to his left on the far wall.

A picture hung up on the wall, directly in Quentin's field of vision. Four people, a man and woman with arms around each other, a little girl and a young man all stood near each other. The little girl had her arms wrapped around the young mans leg, a giant grin on her face. The young man was looking down at her laughing, and who Quentin assumed were the parents were looking at them both with small smiles.

Quentin stared at the picture, easily seeing the love the small family shared. They used to live in this little house. They had lives, they went to work, they came home each night to the ones they loved. Quentin wondered what happened to drive them from their home completely. Had they been attacked? Had the Gifted decided they wanted this part of Europe and crashed through, destroying everything in their path? Or had the humans wanted to expand their hold further around Fort London, driving the last people living here from their homes?

Anger bubbled up in Quentin's chest, so he closed his eyes, cutting of his view to the picture. Leaning his head to the side, he gave a small sigh and tried to sleep.

(LEAFY! Did you just ask if you could join this? Of course you can! ^_^ It's so good to have you back! :D)

Bobbi: Fort Paris

Smooth. That's what Bobbi was. Smooth.

Genius. Now he thinks you're being condescending.

Bobbi immediately felt foolish. What did she have to prove, anyway? So what if she wasn't the bravest soldier? She had her talents, her assets...she was no fearless tiger, no high-spirited horse. She was cautious and the voice of reason, albeit not when it came to her own life. With others? Bobbi liked to think of herself as the mother of the group.

This pretending to be brave by facing her socially awkward fears was ridiculous.

"Nothing," she quickly murmured. "Sorry." Was it just her, or did he sound---and look?---bitter. Her natural caring came out, and Bobbi found herself talking without her permission. "I just knew that the trainees would be graduating soon, that's all...or at least that's what the instructor told me."

She shrugged, knowing the instructor would hang her if he found out she'd told a trainee that the graduating date was coming up.

Oh well.

Leona: Arizona Base

"Good." Leona nodded, pleased. She began to walk again, but more slowly, so as to make a comfortable air while she spoke to the girl. As she walked, she headed in the direction of her tent. She had Aurora's folder there, the seven names of her new troop in it. The girl would need to look them over, and, much to Leona's annoyance, quickly.

Major Kirsh should have done this sooner. A Captain needed to get to know their crew, not rush into a mission barely knowing them. But this would, obviously, be an exception.

"I'll be sending you and your team to the edge of Arizona, at the Goldman Base near Colorado. It'll take a week of travel there, another back." She paused, the list from before popping into her mind. Now was her chance to give it to Aurora...and she would.

She had to.

"The Goldman Base has been having...trouble, to say the least. Small teams of humans have been making hit and runs, too small in number to do any real damage, but also consistent. The Gifted there can't seem to stop the problem, and their supplies are diminishing. We believe their giving the supplies to nearby human bases, making far more serious difficulties on the frontlines." Her eyes grazed over Aurora's face. "We need you and your team to put an end to it. And you've lucked out, believe me; each one of your new recruits is amazingly talented. Not so many Captains get so lucky."

Leona paused outside of her tent, gesturing for Aurora to go in first. Her advisors had pushed her to get a room in the Headquarters building, but why waste space? She could sleep in a tent as well as anyone else.

He flitted over to the top of Leona's tent, chirping noisily. He was lucky it was winter...it meant he wasn't the only songbird this side of the Great Plains. His sparrow form blended in with the other tweeting forms spinning around the clouds and the cacti.

When he landed there, he pecked at his feathers briefly, looking down at Leona. Just because they had broken up didn't mean she had to be a total jerk to him, especially when it was, like, eighty-percent her fault. Seriously. She should obviously apologize to him first. Maybe if she did, then he'd take Ameth's advice and say that making out with Ameth had been an overreaction to their relationship troubles.

Maybe then people in camp would stop giving him such dirty looks. Why was everyone siding with her on this? She might be the beloved commander, but c'mon! Kors was the Snake Charmer!!! The best musician on the base!!

A cynical grin twisted Chay’s face, in an almost sick way. The moonlight reflected off of Chay’s skin, giving her the allusion of a porcelain doll. Her pitless heart pounded roughly against her chest as blew gasoline onto the open flame, resting in her hand. Fire breathing, with the proper technique and the correct fuel she could create the illusion of danger to enhance the novelty of fire breathing. Chay’s eyebrows twitched softly, feeling the unusually moisture of sweat collecting at her temple.

The small crowd started to grow larger around her. Chay glance darted around, looking to every dark corner, and scanning each face she could, as best as she could, with only the moonlight and her breath giving off light. She was attracting too much attention. Her face relaxed, before she quickly and precisely grabbed a different fuel from her belt, this time it would only light when sprayed into a fine mist increasing the surface area of the fuel so that the oxygen and heat ratio would be balanced enough to cause combustion.

The flames were brilliant in the dark winter night, they had a special glow under the moon, with the winter chill and the flames seeming to be battling one another.

Her face twisted once more while grabbing a pair of special smoke b.ombs from her pouch and tossing them into the flame. A loud popping noise filled the air. As Chay somersaulted to the ground, grabbing the money that was thrown to the center and tucking it into her bag she covered her nose and mouth with a mask. She weaved herself through the crowd, the ground and air full of smoke, that mirrored thick fog, which in this case was a dark purple.

Screams, coughing and pushing had erupted from the crowd as soon as she set off the smoke b.ombs. Weaving in and out through people she realised a fist fight had started between two different people.

The key is to not get involved--to never allow myself to care. To just focus on having some fun, and never look back when it’s time to move on.

Chay jumped over the crowd, using two tall heads to give herself an extra boost, judging by the groans she could tell they were male. Jumping to the ground, she fled, hearing the sound of boots behind her.

Aurora followed after Leona, her hands stuffed in her pocket, certaintly not the outward appearance of someone who just got promoted to Captain.

Aurora had heard of the problems going on at the border of Arizona, but she didn't know it had gotten bad enough for a team to be sent. She listened to Leona finish her description of the problem as they neared her tent.

She glanced at Leona, giving her commander a small nod, she was indeed very lucky. I wonder who they are, I probably will know some of them. Aurora liked to know everybody and their cousin. Not personally, but their names, ages, ranks, talents, anything that could be used.

As Leona paused outside her tent, motioning for Aurora to enter, she looked up to see a bird, a sparrow, chirping with quite a lot of energy over the top of Leona's tent. Fitzgerald? Wha-

She frowned up at the bird, giving him an appraising look before glancing back down at Leona and ducking into her tent.

Jem sat at an old table, rubbing his temple. A chipped coffee cup was in front of him, probably going cold. He didn't care, though. No, all Jem cared about was the little girl...the little girl he could not save...

He should of been used to death by now, shouldn't of he? Afterall, Jem was the head doctor. He had seen death time and time after again. Each patient he loss was like a tiny príck in his heart. It was his duty, but it was a heavy one to bear. Jem sighed deeply, staring at his coffe cup intently.

Maybe it was because it was a little girl. Maybe that's why it was really getting to him. The tattoos on his arms stood out against his pale skin, ink black. Each with a name...each with to many memories to take at a time...

"Sir?"A tentative voice broke Jem out of his reveries. He looked up to find Jenkins, biting his lower lip with uncertainty."We uh, need you back."

Of coarse. His coffee breaks were never the longest, were they?

(Should he visit Choo, since she is deaf in one ear, if I'm correct...? Kind of like a check-up?))

Jo nodded, typing in the information into the computer and clicking save. She'd never met anyone with his particular gift before, although it did explain the strange nickname.

She logged out and turned back to him. Usually she'd use her power whenever she met someone new, to make sure they didn't underestimate her, but strangely she didn't feel like doing that to Snooze. Maybe it was because he was the so young, or because he seemed to be truly genuine. Jo sighed. "Look kid, I'm going to be honest with you," She said, looking at him with a serious expression. "If you stick around here for long you might end up in a bit of trouble. They don't really tolerate pacifists for long before they start thinking you're a human spy."

Noah:Fort Paris

Noah raised an eyebrow questioningly as she claimed that the trainees would be graduating soon. Really? That was news to him. Their instructor liked to emphasize how much time and effort it took to become a soldier, without giving any solid requirements about anything. Noah relaxed a bit, feeling reassured that the training wasn't for nothing at least.

Now that he thought about it, how would a girl like this know about something like that? Noah narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at her more closely. She was young, typically too young to be on the same level of Rivette and the instructors, even if she had managed to become a soldier a couple years ahead of time... Yet, somehow, she was.

Now that his curiosity had been piqued Noah wanted to know just how this girl had managed to climb so far so fast.

"Right, thank you," He said politely with a smile. He held out his hand. "My name is Noah Yadin."

"I know that."Snooze muttered, his eyelids flickering down. And deep down, Snooze did know he couldn't follow Jo around forever. No matter how nice she was, or how bad he wanted to, it just wasn't how the world worked. Snooze visibly slumped, before his green eyes went back up to hers. There was a determined set to his jaw.

"I know I can't stay here for long, but can I stay here for a little while?" Snooze hated to ask, but what other choice did he have? He needed food, and water. When was the last time he even ate? Snooze couldn't even remember that."I promise, not for long."He added quickly, nodding earnestly. Faintly, Snooze wondered what power Jo had."I'll stay out of the way, and won't even eat that much food." Again, it was true. Snooze didn't eat too much, and he was more than quiet.

"Promise. Cross my heart,"Snooze hastily crossed his heart,"And pinky swear."He held out a long, thin and tan pinky, just to seal the deal.

Dolphin: Just a refresher: Was it the sparrow form or Kor's other form that hardly anyone knows is him? I wasn't sure...it was the sparrow, right? I just want to double check. ^_^)

Leona

Leona followed after Aurora, looking at her barren tent with some mild surprise; she was always surprised by the lack of objects, not that she should be by now. It was, after all, her tent.

She strode over to her desk, pulling open a drawer and taking out the thick folder inside. She offerred it to Aurora. "This has the seven files on your new recruits." She pursed her lips. "You'll notice one of them is a...trainee. My apologies, but her Gift is useful. More importantly, she also speaks Russian, amongst other things. Our linguist, if you will. At Goldman Base, many of the higher-ups were born in Russia and were transported here for our use. You may need more than one person who speaks it---she can help there."

Leona knew Aurora would look over the folder carefully---or hoped she would---but before she dismissed the girl, Leona pulled out another list slowly. She glanced down at the names, some crossed down and others added in place, pulling out another piece of paper and a pen.

On the new piece of paper, she wrote down three names:

Amanyx Sveta-Lubov Foka Petrova

Ronan Sheppard

Zhao Chu-Hua

Leona flipped the paper over and, taking a deep breath, wrote down the words she'd been dreading for years:

The war is not what you think it is. Humans fight Gifted, and Gifted fight humans, but the humans did not start. There are secrets about our General you do not know, but know this: The humans did not enslave us three hundred years ago, and they did not start this war. It's up to us to put a stop to it, or life as we know it is over. Prepare to fight.

Leona pulled back, folded the paper, and handed it to Aurora, her eyes sharp. "Don't open this yet. In private you may, Captain." She paused. "You have another mission. A personal one. There are three names here, and you are to find those people and give them the same message I gave you. You'll have questions, and I don't have all the answers. Not yet. They'll have questions, too. Tell them to wait, be patient. They'll know what to do when the time comes."

Leona smiled tightly, bitterly.

I hope this works. After all these years of collecting information, writing these names, finding these people...this is it.

Bobbi felt more at ease when the boy---Noah---held out his hand. She shook it tentatively, clearing her throat. "No problem. Bobbi McArthur."

Why did I never change my last name? She wondered, pulling her hand back, her smile turning to more of a grimace. Why did I want any ties to my old family? All I was to them was a monster. I shouldn't want that name. Not a single part of it.

But she'd kept it so far. Why?

Bobbi tried to steer clear of those thoughts, her eyes flickering to the wall that surrounded the Fort and back to Noah's face. Was it just her, or was there a....commotion, outside the walls? Was there something going on? Had those lunatic humans wielding those grenades come close to the wall again? Did they never learn?

Bobbi's eyes went back to the instructor, whose back was to them. He hated when traines stuck their noses in business they shouldn't. He wanted them to lie low, have zero profiles, keep silent...

Bobbi suddenly grinned at Noah, gesturing to the wall and the instructor's turned back. "Wanna go check that out?"

(Carson-- it's the sparrow. Most people don't know that Kors can turn into a sparrow, just an FYI for everybody else. He's occasionally careless, so it's possible some people might know, but most people think he can just turn into a cobra. :) Hope that helps!)

Kors: Arizona Base

The Snake Charmer descended into the tight space between Leona's tent and the one behind it, hovering in the air for a few brief seconds before flipping the mental switch that activated his transformation into human form. His flesh grew warm, and all melted together and reformed within seconds, his body filling up with matter like his brain had just taken a deep breath.

Once a human teen again, Kors walked around to the front of the tent and knocked a few times on one of the metallic poles. "Hey, when you're done in there, you got a minute?" he called in.

Choo didn’t finish her meal. She had an official doctor’s appointment today, and though she had never liked doctors, Choo knew it was a good idea, plus she couldn’t get transferred without a checkup. An over-worked medic had given her shots and a warm blanket when she first got to Arizona, but since then no one had bothered her. But now she was curled up in a waiting room chair, with a battered up magazine she could barely understand- and in about ten minutes they would call her name.

What if I have to talk to someone?

Choo hadn’t spoken to anyone, really, since she had lied and...distracted...her way through security checkpoints in India. She had nodded when officials asked her questions, but only the people who heard her screaming Chinese in the middle of the night knew she actually possessed a tongue.

( I wasn't sure how many people or how well-known Kors' form would be, I just threw it in there, ignore it if it's wrong! :-)

Aurora: Arizona Base

Aurora's eyes zeroed in on the folder as Leona pulled it out and handed it to her. She was already itching to study every detail in all seven files.

She looked up at Leona through her lashes, her expression strangly serious, "I've found that sometimes rank is no tell for intelligence or usefulness, the fact she is a trainee is of no importance to me."

Aurora watched Leona silently as the other girl pulled out a slip of paper, writing something down. She waited with carefully hidden curiousity until Leona handed her the paper, her eyes digging into Aurora's.

She slowly reached out and took the piece of paper, rubbing it between her fingers before tucking it into the inside pocket of her jacket. Find three random people in the middle of a world-wide war? The thought, to put it lightly, was daunting.

Aurora stepped back once and gave Leona a respectful nod, "I'll be ready by tomorrow morning." She turned and exited the tent, headed for her own tent. She had a lot to think about tonight.